October 2008's 8 coolest gadgets revealed

Ceatec: robots, video cards and games consoles

By Martyn Williams | 18 October 08

October 2008 saw Japan's biggest electronics show: Ceatec. More than 196,000 visitors to Ceatec got a chance to see the best of the Japanese electronics industry, including some exciting prototypes of devices that are still a long way from hitting the market.

One of the biggest draws was Murata Manufacturing's unicycling robot, but robots from Nissan also made headlines. There were lots of thin TVs too, but it seems like I've spent so much time looking at ever-slimmer TVs recently I'm going to leave those out of this month's column!

Something interesting was the Au Box, a sort of set-top box that brings together broadband content and funnels it to a mobile phone or TV.

Away from Ceatec there were a couple of interesting digital still cameras to add to those I brought you last month plus, causing some excitement among gamers, a renewal of the best-selling DS Lite from Nintendo.

Would you believe people began auctioning reservation tickets for the DSi, as the new model is called, fewer than 24 hours after its announcement? That's about a month before it goes on sale.